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>> Summer camp is a place to build memories and
friendships, a place for discovery and fun. One of
the camps on Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Lake is Camp
Sweyolakan, run by Camp Fire of the Inland Northwest.
[Miss Erica] This camp has been around since 1922
and it's been a huge part of many children's lives.
[Virginia Harger] The year was 1924. I was 12 years old.
And from the first view from the frog rock around the
corner here to the sandy beach and the buildings
that were here, we just loved it from that first moment.
[Kathy Davis] My whole life has changed by coming to
Sweyolakan. And I can't imagine what
it would be like without it.
[Miss Erica] I came here as a camper,
so I was a bluebird camper and then
came here for ten years as a camper. I was on staff
for a year then went away for quite a while, went to
college, grad school, and then decided that I needed
to come back to camp, to my home, to where my roots are,
to work with kids again and share some of the
experiences I got to have here, as I grew up at this camp.
>> Miss Erica is now director of Camp Sweyolakan.
[Miss Erica] And there are amazing
things that they can do here at this camp. As they
grow, as they learn, as they become great campers
and meaningful individuals as they grow up and learn
to grow up here at Sweyolakan.
>> The camp offers many highlights. One of the main
things that linger in the minds and hearts of campers are
the fleet of canoes. With some canoes dating back to the
1920's this is one of the largest camp fleets in the U.S.
[Miss Erica] The canoes are our flagship,
they really are. I'm amazed that they're still
here and look as good as they do. And I am so
thankful for the restoration committee
that's taking the heart and the energy and the
time to put them back to shape that they were.
>> Over time the canoes have been patched up, but have
not had full repair and restoration until now.
[Eileen Matthews] I returned to camp couple
years ago with a women's retreat, we're wandering
around, a bunch of us and we noticed right off that
the canoes were in a state of disrepair. And kind of
chewed on that for a while, and went on the
internet and started looking for resources to help
us to maybe put them back into better condition.
[Carol Measel] So we put our heads
together and I said you figure out how to fix them
and I'll figure out how to get the money. So she came
up with the numbers of what it cost to redo each
canoe. And the sponsors were just crazy about it.
[Eileen] And it all came together in 2011 and we
had an expert come out for ten days of training we
had a group of about twelve of us and that's
really where it all started.
>> The organizers created a work crew mostly made up of Goldens.
Goldens are women who had been on the Sweyolakan
staff in the 1960's and 70's. Now the Goldens are
in their 60's and 70's. There were a lot of
details to learn about planks, ribs, gunnels,
keels and more. And then there was a lot work to do.
[Eileen] We probably put 800 hours into the three
canoes we worked on that Fall of 2011.
[Kathy] We're getting ready to put the final varnish coat on
this afternoon. When we finish it's nice and smooth.
And it will withstand water, elements and children.
Then after all the woodworking is
done, on the understructure we apply
canvas. And it is just that, canvas. It comes in
big rolls. We put it on the hull of the boat, and
then we fill it with a special silica-sand
mixture. We rub it into the fibers of the canvas
so that we get rid of the weave look of the canvas.
And it fills it up with the silica-sand and that's
what makes it water proof. It takes a lot of work.
Itís a lot of fun. And a restored canoe like this
should be able to go fifteen years perhaps
before it has to have anything major done to it.
[Eileen] Well I always like to make things and build
things and putter around stuff like that.
When I saw the canoes, they were kind of the
pride of camp when we were here.
[Miss Erica] And it really inspires all of my campers.
You can see them come out and they look at the two
that have been completed, the Kiwanis and the Tyee,
and they're like 'ooh pretty' and it makes them
want to take those canoes back out again.
[Carol] It's just so phenomenal how everyone relates to these
canoes. And we have kids coming up and looking in the canoe
shed, 'when can I work on them, what can I do'?
Of course they all want to paint. And we say 'you'll
have to pay your dues, and you have to sand. Before
you get to paint, you have to sand for a couple of days'.
And it's just phenomenal, kids that are
16, 17 up to seventy year olds.
[Miss Erica] And a lot of that intergenerational
communication doesn't happen outside of camp.
So it's really a unique experience for our campers
and for the Goldens and the people working on this
committee. That's something that's special
and wonderful about it, and that's pretty cool.